


The End and the Beginning

by Illusinia



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusinia/pseuds/Illusinia
Summary: The end comes and a new beginning is born. With the fall of the First Order come some serious sacrifices, but the end is not always the end. Sometimes it can mark a new beginning as well.A quasi-cannon to AU transition story.Please note, while there is major character death, there's no actual character death. It's in there as a warning due to the graphic violence associated with the "deaths".
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Phasma/Paige Tico
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	The End and the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Please note, there is a suggestion of potential Poe/Ben/Armitage in this, but it isn't active at this point. AO3 doesn't do non-standard tags well on a phone.

The ship was falling apart. Klaxons rang through the halls, red glinting off cracking and bent wall panels, broken only by exposed wiring spitting electricity from the ceiling above. Sparks cast long shadows, distorting the room ominously. Echoing the same promise of demise as the klaxons for anyone who didn't get off the ship, now.

Rey could hear people frantically running through the halls, shouts consumed by the explosions that caused the Destroyer to shutter every few seconds, though Rey hardly had time to think of it. Her focus right now was stopping Ren. And the angry Knight was not going down without a fight.

Red and blue collided as their saber blades caught and slid, the electrical hum barely audible over the din of the emergency beacons. It was over, the war would end here. The First Order would die much the same as the Empire did. In one sweeping battle, this war would turn and a victor would be decided.

“Give up, Rey, you’ve lost,” growled Kylo, his blade slashing down towards her, only to be caught by her own. Madness glinted in his eyes, determination and desperation mixed with anger. A dangerous combination. “I will rule the galaxy.”

“No,” gasped out Rey, her eyes catching his. The force hummed through her, around her, an extension of herself. It cracked along her skin as she pushed it forward and out, against Kylo. He stumbled back, shock and surprise momentarily flashing across his features. She gave him no opportunity to recover though, gave no pause in her own motion. If she was going to win, she couldn't hesitate. Only one of them would come away from this alive. There was no other way.

She lunged, ducking his next frantic strike, and let her lightsaber hit home, sliding straight through his chest. “No, you won't.”

A wet choking noise escaped his throat as the scent of burnt leather and flesh filled the air, curling towards the blade that remained protruding through his chest. For a moment, she froze, her eyes locked with Ren’s as the light faded from them. She watched as he died, needing to know he was really gone. That they were really safe.

As soon as she hit the button to deactivate the blade, Ren’s body fell towards her. She easily sidestepped it, letting him flop to the ground with a thump that was buried beneath the noise of the ship around her. Seeing him there, sprawled across the ground, made her shudder and she had to look away. She hadn’t had a choice. He wouldn’t be stopped any other way. It didn’t make looking at him easier though.

The scream of the alarms had faded to the background as they fought, but now it came into sharp, full contrast. It blared overhead and all around her, echoing across the metal plating in the room. The damage really was severe. The overhead lights were all but out, the few still on flickering intermittently. Wires sparked and hissed where they're broken or fallen free from their moorings, cover panels littering the ground and hanging half shattered from the walls and ceiling. 

Immediately, she sought out her friends amid the chaos, carefully stepping over Ben’s body as she scanned the surroundings for some sign of them. She needed to find them. She needed to know if they were okay. They needed to escape.

Her eyes passed over Hux first, slumped forward over a command console. His body was completely slack, his hands and arms bent over the top of the console as if he’d just laid down for a nap in the middle of the chaos. Even his eyes were closed in a semblance of peace she doubted he’d ever experienced in reality. It was sad to think the General’s only peace came with death, but Rey had little time to focus on the matter. She had to find her friends. 

Her eyes skated over a blond woman next, sprawled on the ground. She only recognized the woman as Phasma by her chrome armor, now stained with blood and black ash from where a blaster bolt had pierced her chestplate. A black cloak pillowed her body in some facimally of a blanket, though it was clearly soaked with blood. Finn’s tormentor. She was dead, much like Hux. Three of the most dangerous people in the First Order lay dead around the same room. It was only three people, but it was a huge victory. 

Another screech ran through the ship and Rey quickly moved on from the prone woman to the rest of the room. She caught sight of a pair of boots next, attached to a body sprawled across the ground. Finn’s boots.

Her eyes shot up immediately, spotting both Finn and Poe. Poe was leaning against a wall, his breathing visibly harsh and blood leaking between the fingers of one hand where they were pressed against his side. He looked like hell.

Finn didn’t appear to be in much better condition. Though he wasn’t visibly bleeding like Poe, he was clearly unconscious, maybe already dead even. Poe’s free hand was threading through Finn’s short curls, shaking as if he was trying to hold himself together. It didn’t take much to realize their friend was already lost and she felt her heart clench in her chest.

Poe wasn’t dead yet though, and she forced herself to focus on that. Hurrying to them, she knelt beside Poe and tried to figure out if they could bandage the injury well enough to get to an escape pod. Her fingers danced around his, trying to get some feel for the wound, but another screech and jolt drew her attention. The shudder was ominous.

Fingers pressed to her hand, squeezing it softly. Her eyes darted up to Poe’s, his look fatalistic and accepting. “Rey, go. Get out of here.”

Another screech and she looked at the monitor spread over the command console, the only thing in the room that appeared to somehow be functioning. It wasn’t displaying any warnings anymore though and another loud noise that might have been an explosion echoed from somewhere far off. No, there was no escape now. Even if she tried, she would probably die. And if that was her fate…

Shaking her head, she returned Poe’s accepting look. For a moment, he seemed like he might try to push. Then, he lifted the hand away from his injury, opening up a space beneath it where she could climb in. She didn’t hesitate to curl close, pressing her body against his side and wrapping her arms around him so she could reach both him and Finn. One of her hands fell to the other man’s hair, softly stroking it with Poe.

Poe’s lips found her forehead, pressing a soft kiss there. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile. A silent ‘we did it’. He just smiled in return and pulled her closer. Another explosion echoed closer and she closed her eyes as Poe’s lips found her head again. 

A terrible noise and heat momentarily filled the room, a flash in the pan. So quickly, she couldn’t have said which reached them first.

Then, everything just went black.

\-------------------- 

Beeping filled Rey’s ears, making the blackness of sleep ring with sound. Slowly, she blinked and reached out blearily to slam the snooze button on top of the clock. It stopped immediately, the noise dying instantly and leaving the room silent once more. Well, as silent as it ever was. There was noise outside the window from the street below. Cars and other noises, mostly other people calling to one another, filled the room from the open window.

Bloody hell, it was noisy for-

Rey glanced at her phone for the time and cursed. Shit! She was late!

Scrambling out of bed, Rey bolted for the door, then remembered she needed clothes. Right.

Spinning back, she began rapidly digging through the basket of clean laundry she’d left abandoned on her dorm room floor the previous night. What was the point of putting stuff away immediately? No one at the university cared.

Grabbing the first shirt and pair of pants she could (both irrevocably stained with some questionable substance she was at a loss to name), she pulled them on and fled out the door again. Only to nearly crash into her roommate, Paige.

“Whoa Rey!” exclaimed Paige as she caught herself on the door frame. “Is the room on fire again? I don’t see smoke.”

“No,” replied Rey as she spun back into the room. Bag. And keys. And wallet. She needed those. “I’m late meeting your girlfriend and Finn for a study session.”

“Better run then,” advised Paige with a smile and a wink as she dropped her bag at her desk. “Phas isn’t the most patient person.”

“Oh, I know,” assured Rey as she waved at the other woman and jogged for the door. “Later!” 

“Good luck,” called back Paige, her words following Rey into the hall.

Rey would have probably said something back, but she didn’t have time. Not if she didn’t want to hear about being late for the next month. Not that she probably wouldn’t anyway, but she still could maybe make it on time if she left now.

Opting for the stairs over the elevator, Rey put the parkour training she’d been going for to good use. She was on the first floor two minutes and seven floors later. “Not bad,” she murmured before darting through the door and heading across the campus at a jog.

Heading down the hill towards the quad at a brisk jog, she nearly ran into Professor Holdo. The other woman shot a raised eyebrow at her, but otherwise didn’t remark and Rey took the opportunity to escape before she could change her mind. Holdo was one of the more terrifying professors on campus. She didn't want to risk getting in trouble with the woman.

Skirting the prickly professor, she hurried towards the quad that covered the middle of campus. If Holdo was going to say something to her, she apparently changed her mind because Rey made it all the way to the fountain without being called back or yelled at. Much to her relief. Holdo could be super strict sometimes and she hated when students ran around the campus.

Turning towards where she needed to head, she nearly ran smack into a thin chest. Blinking, she pulled back and looked up the ginger-haired man she'd collided with. Hux stared back at her with a raised eyebrow, Ben snickering beside him.

“Plotting to blow up the engineering building again, Rey?” asked Hux deadpan, though a twitch of his lips said he was joking

Rey rolled her eyes as Ben's snickering changed to full on laughter. “I told you, that was Dameron!”

“At least you selected a likely culprit to blame,” remarked Hux with a hum, eyes narrowing suspiciously. “I still don't think even Dameron is dense enough to pour untested fuel into an experimental engine.”

“He gave me the wrong vial,” grumbled Rey as she glanced over at Ben. “Ben, tell him!”

“Nope, I stay out of engineering school business,” stated Ben firmly, holding up his hands in surrender. “Especially if it involves Poe or Armitage. I learned that one the hard way last time I tried to mediate one of their arguments.” The face Ben pulled spoke to the pain he'd experienced. 

Rey couldn't blame him. Poe and Hux were both extremely stubborn people. Any fight between them was bound to be volatile. Honestly, she was a little surprised Hux had ended up so close to Ben. She would have expected him to end up falling into bed with Poe. Not that Ben and Hux admitted to sleeping together at all. No, that would ruin Hux's reputation as an aloof, ice king. Not that the whole campus hadn’t noticed the way his eyes traced over Ben. Or the way Ben gave Hux the largest, sappiest eyes she’d ever seen. Comparable to a puppy, really.

“I’m sure he did,” replied Hux in a tone that conveyed just how little he believed her. And with a smirk to match.

“So, Rey, where are you running off to?” asked Ben, clearly trying to steer the conversation along. Quickly. “You look like you're in a hurry.”

“Yes, what building are you planning to destroy so I can avoid it,” asked Hux, an eyebrow rising in feigned curiosity. Oh, he was feeling snarky today.

“I'm heading to the cafe to meet Phasma and Finn to study for our biology class, thank you,” replied Rey with a roll of her eyes. Then she smirked and waved as she turned away, adding: “ We're studying chemistry next week in the engineering building, in Hux's office! Might want to take out anything important!”

“No, you are not!” shouted back Hux as she began to jog away, though there was no malice there. He knew Phasma wouldn't let them blow up his office just like she knew the stern blond wouldn't let them near it. It was fun to tease him, though.

Giggling at the thought of Hux's face if they did damage his precious office she failed to notice the man in front of her until she collided with him. Hard.

She would have fallen too, if it weren't for a strong arm catching her so quickly. “Careful there, sunshine. You're gonna hurt yourself if you keep barreling around like that. Or worse, run into Holdo.”

“Already did,” replied Rey, snickering as she looked up at Poe with a grin. The engineering professor was one of her favorites, always up for experiments and whatever hijinks his students came up with. His Moto: my goal is to teach you how not to blow stuff up, and we are going to do that by blowing stuff up. “She gave me the Medusa stare.”

“Yeah?” asked Poe with a grin as he stepped back. “How'd you survive?”

“I ran before she could catch me,” replied Rey with a laugh, finally taking note of the man. He was actually dressed nicely. Well, nicely for him. Which really just meant no grease or oil stains on his clothes and his hair was kind of in order. Then there were the red roses in his hands. Oh, this was perfect.

A sly smirk pulled across her lips as she looked up at him. “Nice flowers.”

Red lightly dusted his cheeks and Poe cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Uh, thanks?”

“You look nice, too,” she continued, her smirk widening. “Who are you pursuing this time?”

“That's none of your concern, sunshine,” admonished Poe with a scowl. The way the blush on his cheeks deepened took away from the effect though.

Rey cackled even as Poe made a shooing motion at her. “Don't you have studying to do? You owe me three projects alone!”

“Two,” stated Rey with a laugh as Poe began walking away. “Hey Poe, red like his lips or his hair?”

Poe didn't turn around, though he flipped her the bird behind his back which just made her laugh all the harder as she began jogging once more towards her destination. It wasn't really a secret that Poe was probably crushing on either Ben or Hux. He was always around them and he put up with shit from both of them he never would from anyone else. Ever.

Still laughing, she continued down the pathway, waving as she spotted Uncle Luke and Aunt Leia across the way. They waved back, though they didn’t so much as pause their conversation, which could be anything from a philosophy debate to a review of Han’s recent dubious jobs. As much as she loved the whole Skywalker-Solo clan, as much as they were like family, even she had to admit that Han’s penchant for incredibly questionable jobs was irksome, largely because it was so worrying to Leia. She knew Ben worried too, though probably less than Leia after he snuck on board his father’s plane, the Millenium Falcon, and ended up on a six month smuggling run. He’d come back a lot more respectful of his father.

Rey still wasn’t sure what he’d seen, but it had to have been pretty significant for him to no longer seem to resent the man. She'd never really asked, neither had Leia for that matter. Of course, Leia met him in the midst of a civil war if she understood the story correctly. She might well know exactly what Ben witnessed without asking.

Checking her watch, she cursed and cut across the lawn between her and the student center. She didn't have time to go around, even though it looked pretty wet. It was, too, her feet slipping on the blades slightly as she went. One of her feet went out from under her as she ran, but she quickly rolled and popped back up without losing a second. Parkour had to be good for something after all. She made a mental note to thank Uncle Luke for introducing her to the sport as her feet hit the cement again and she jogged towards the student center, vaulting up and over the railing along the stairs.

“Rey!” Finn’s voice broke in from her left, drawing her attention to a small, out of the way table at the very end of the patio. It had a chair just out of the sun where Phasma was taking shelter from the rays. For a woman as tough as her, the sun was her enemy. She’d seen the taller woman almost the color of a cooked lobster before.

“Hey Finn, Phasma,” replied Rey as she jogged over to them, dropping her bag next to the only empty seat at the table. “You found a way for Phasma to sit outside without her vampire blood boiling!”

Phasma let out a feigned hiss, a smile curling at her lips. It was an old joke, but one the blond took well.

“Yep, after half an hour,” confirmed Finn with a cheerful grin. “We can actually sit outside and study!”

“If you could burn, you’d never want to be in the sun either,” grumbled Phasma as she flipped the page on her book.

“I can burn,” objected Finn with a roll of his eyes. “Trust me, I’ve gotten a few bad burns in my life and it sucks. But see, there’s this thing called Sunscreen and they even make it in 100 spf for people who can still burn.”

Phasma flipped the bird at Finn, rolling her eyes as she did. “Why did I agree to help you two again?”

“Because you’re a nice person and Paige asked,” replied Rey as she pulled out her bio book and began flipping through to the first tabbed page. “You are the one studying to be a personal trainer.”

“I’m studying sports medicine,” countered Phasma with a faint scowl. “Why you two keep coming to me is beyond me.”

“Because sports medicine requires a certain knowledge of rudimentary biology to understand the basic functions of the body,” replied Finn with his bright, world-winning smile. “And you know you like knowing more than us about something. It helps reinforce your competitive need to always be on top and win. Which is why you compete in most of the sports competitions on campus and why most of the men call you Amazon.”

“You sound like such a psych student right now,” remarked Phasma, one of her sharp eyebrows raising in challenge.

“What? No, I don’t!” exclaimed Finn in clear insult. His gaze immediately shot to her, clearly seeking some kind of support. “Rey!”

“Nope, I’m with Phasma,” stated Rey as she tapped on the open page of her book. “When you start analyzing people like that, you sound like a psych student. Now, can we start?”

Nodding, Phasma glanced at the page Rey had opened to before flipping to the same one. “Okay, what’s confusing you this time?”

“Sodium-potassium pumps,” replied Rey with a sigh, tapping on a diagram in her book. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Wouldn’t it waste energy rather than help gain it?” added Finn as he leaned forward, sliding a cup of coffee over to Rey in the process. She took it gratefully and swallowed a large gulp, letting the liquid jump-start her brain.

“No, it doesn’t,” stated Phasma with a sigh as she yanked a notebook out from under her text and began to draw on a free page. “Look, sodium-potassium pumps are responsible for…”


End file.
